Going Home?
by RavenBelours
Summary: My take on how 3x11 could have gone "Emma, there's so much I'm grateful for, so much… that I started to feel for you." Her voice broke.


**So this is my take on what could have happened in 3x11. I'm sorry for any mistakes, I'm not a native and this is unbetad but I somehow wanted to write and publish it right away, because I had to somehow deal with all the feels the winter finale gave me.**

**So I hope you enjoy.**

„We have no choice, you have to go. "

Emma just stared at Regina, thought of what the other woman had just said. There were so many emotions flooding around her heart that she didn't know what to feel at all, besides the feeling of the tremendous unfairness.

None of this was fair!

"It's not fair", she verbalized her last thought, her voice cracking.

"I know", Regina answered, voice thick of emotions, eyes glistening with tears. "But you have to go. You have to take care of Henry. Please. For all those years he was everything I had, everything good that had ever come to my life. Please, take care of him."

Emma felt tears on her cheeks and raised her hand to brush them away. Of course she would take care of Henry; there was no question with that, but everything else? How were they to live with the knowledge that all their beloved ones were lost forever?

But then she remembered what Regina had just said.

"For all those years…" she said barely audible.

"What?"

"You said, for all those years he was everything you had." she repeated, slightly louder, "but what about now? Whom else do you have?"

She saw an emotion in Regina's eyes that she'd never noticed there before, at least not directed at her. But this time it was. This time the look of these breathtakingly beautiful brown eyes was meant only for her and Emma felt her heart clench at the thought of what Regina's next words would be.

"Now…" Regina started, swallowing heavily, "now I have you, too, Emma. When you came into my life there was nothing I wanted more than for you to disappear again. Hell, I would have made you disappear. But now… now I feel like… I feel like living without you will make me incomplete. Only with you I managed to be the mother I always wanted to be, only with you around I learned to differ between right and wrong. Emma, there's so much I'm grateful for, so much… that I started to feel for you." Her voice broke.  
"That's the reason why I never wanted to tell you this."

"That you… that you _love_ me?"

Regina nodded.

"But… but…. No! It's not fair. That's not fair!"

Regina was taken by surprise.

"It's not fair that I love you?"

"It's not fair that you only tell me now! I love you too, Regina! I love you!"

Regina was speechless, emotion overwhelming her once again on this fateful day and she felt tears streaming down her cheeks as her heart clenched painfully.

But suddenly there were hands covering her cheeks, gently stroking away the tears. She found herself lost in Emma's jade-green eyes that mirrored the emotions she herself felt. She could feel the other woman's breath on her lips, but as much as she wanted this, she couldn't.

"Don't", she whispered.

Hurt flickered in Emma's eyes.

"What? Why?"

Emma took a step back, facing Regina from a little distance.

"Because there's something I haven't told you."

"What now?"

"The curse, once it's cast, will erase Storybrooke and with it all your memories of it. The last years, they will never have happened. You won't remember any of us. We'll just go back to be the fairytales we were."

"I won't remember you?"

"You won't remember me." Regina couldn't stand looking at Emma's said eyes any longer and averted her gaze.

"But I can break the curse, can't I? I'm the savior." Emma sounded stronger than just a few moments ago.

"I don't know. Possibly. But you won't remember this, you won't believe in magic or curses. How will you break it then? What's the point with that?"

"Will you remember me?"

Regina sighed, choking on a sob at the thought of it.

"I will." She said, more tears falling from her eyes.

"Then that's all that matters."

Once again Emma stepped close and cupped Regina's face in her hands.

"I will find a way to remember, to break the curse. Isn't that what everyone always keeps repeating? Have faith, have hope. And true love…"

"…can break any curse."

Regina finished Emma sentence, barely audible.

Emma nodded, before she leaned in closer and gently pressed her lips on Regina's.

The kiss was light, soft but full of all the emotion a person could possibly feel for another. For both if felt like for a moment the world just stopped turning.

"Emma! Regina!"

Davids loud scream took the two women apart. They followed David's pointed out arm to see the green cloud rolling closer, having almost reached them.

"It's too late to leave." Snow yelled and she was right. They had taken too much time. There was no way Emma and Henry could get to the town line before the curse hit.

"Henry!" Regina called out to her son, who took her outstretched hand. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Henry." she cried.

If he and Emma weren't on the other side of the town line, Emma would come with them to the Enchanted Forest which meant Henry was left alone at the field that once had been Storybrooke. Guilt washed over Regina as she took him into her arms and continued apologizing to him.

She should have never told Emma. She should have thought of Henry first.

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Henry pushed her back to look her in the eyes.

"It's okay mom!" he told her, his expression scared, but not accusingly, "you wanted to have your happy ending. Even if it was just for a moment you wanted to have your happy ending for once in your life. I can't hold that against you. I'm gonna be fine- But I'll miss you. Both of you."

With his last sentence he turned to Emma.

"It's here." Snow said, grasping Davids arm.

Everyone took hold of the people they loved most. The dwarfs held each other's hands, Archie clasped Pongo's leash, the blue fairy touched Tink's arm and Neal laid his arm around Belle's still shaking shoulders.

Emma stepped to Regina and Henry, wrapping one arm around Henry and taking Regina's hand into her free one.

"I love you kid." she told Henry, "and I'm sorry for ever giving you up."

"I know" Henry simply replied, giving her a sad but knowing smile.

Then Emma turned to Regina.

"And I love you, Regina, with all my heart." She leaned forward to press another kiss on Reginas lips, closing her eyes letting all the emotions rush through her body: fear, anger, even guilt but most importantly gratitude and love.

For a long moment she didn't move, felt only Regina's lips against her own, her hand in her own and Henry pressed against her other side.

The curse never hit. The sensation of being transported to another land, the prickling of magic enfolding their bodies never came.

Hesitantly everyone opened their eyes only for their mouths to fall open a second later.

"The curse… it's…"

"… it's drawn back to the wishing well.", David finished Snow's sentence, "It's stopped! It won't hit us!"

Regina and Emma gazed at one another, then at Henry and then at everyone else, relief flooding all of them.

"You did it." The blue fairy said, stepping forward, "You stopped the curse."

She smiled at Regina and Emma who both stood completely surprised.

"But… how?" Emma managed to ask.

"True love's kiss." Snow answered, stepping up to Regina and Emma. "It can break any curse."

"You saved us!" Henry called out, hugging both of his moms, before he turned his gaze to Regina, "Now it's not only Emma who's the savior. You are, too. And even if villains don't get happy endings, heroes do."

Henrys words once again brought tears to Regina's eyes when she bend forward to hug the boy.

She already thought she had lost everything again, but this time she didn't. This time it seemed like she really had a chance at happiness and that was almost more than she could bear.

"Henry's right." Emma said and Regina stood up to face her, looking at a beautiful smile on the blonde's face.

"Heroes do get happy endings. And I'm happy to be yours. I know you thought this of other people before and have been let down. But I promise you, I'll never leave you."

Regina looked at Emma's eyes and all she could see there was pure honesty and… love.

And she just nodded and leaned forward, because there was nothing else she could do.

"I know.", she whispered before kissing her true love again, this time with the knowledge that this kiss would only be the first one, not the last.


End file.
